


Sleeping Beauty

by Cinna_Milk



Series: After, before or during Unleashed (mainly after) [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: All in all we're vibing, As is most of my writing, Brotherly Love, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Inspired by the pocket hog discord, Not Beta Read, Shadow respects Tails, Sonic has a talk about his feelings, set after unleashed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23873431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinna_Milk/pseuds/Cinna_Milk
Summary: Sonic passes out at the end of Unleashed ya? Well how long. Too long in this fic. So a worried Tails decided to call up another hedgehog for some help, and bonding between everyone occursTeen for swearing and death mention (it was about 06)
Relationships: Miles "Tails" Prower & Shadow the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower & Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog & Sonic the Hedgehog
Series: After, before or during Unleashed (mainly after) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720540
Comments: 4
Kudos: 104





	Sleeping Beauty

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta read lmao

It had been almost a day since the Dark Gaia incident was fully taken care of. Twenty hours if we want to be exact. Tails had gotten Sonic home about seventeen hours ago and he’d been sleeping the entire. Which of course was worrying to Tails. Sure Sonic liked sleeping and he took naps all the time but this was pretty excessive. Though, he had just saved the world so he deserved the rest. 

Until he had slept for twenty-three hours with no sign of waking up. Sure Tails knew that going super took a whole bunch of energy, but he had never seen Sonic sleep this long. So he decided to call in some other hedgehog help. He thought about Amy, but she’d just try and cuddle Sonic until he woke up, Silver was in the future and this wasn’t that big of a problem, hopefully, so that just left Shadow. Thankfully he had gotten Shadow’s number after a botched GUN mission, and yeah he was told not to use it if there wasn’t an emergency but his brother sleeping for almost a one whole day seemed pretty problematic. 

So he pushed down any fear he had and pulled out his phone opening up Shadow’s contact. It had rung two times before he got an answer. 

“Hello, is there a problem?”

“Hey Shadow I know you didn’t want me to call you unless we had an emergency that absolutely needed you but uh so you know how the world split apart and stuff-”

“Yes, but it was put back together, get to the actual problem, Tails.”

“Okay, uhm, Sonic’sbeenasleepforthepastdayandIdon’tknowwhat’swrongandIthinkhemightbedead?”

“... What?”

“Sonic has been asleep for a full day! I think he might be dead, but I really can’t know and I need someone who understands hedgehog biology more than I do so I thought why not call an actual hedgehog?”

“Are you sure you aren’t overexaggerating the situation here Tails? Has he actually been asleep for one whole day” 

“He’s been asleep for at least twenty-three hours! I wouldn’t have called you if I didn’t think this was important.” 

A sigh could be heard from the other line “... I know Tails, I’m sorry if it seemed like I was doubting you, I just want all the details before I show up. How has the weather been lately?”

“Weather? It’s been normal, not too hot, not too cold, though Sonic has been all around the Earth for the past two weeks, he’s seen about every type of weather you can see.”

“Where was the coldest place he went to?

“Holoska, but that was a week ago so I’m fairly certain it’s not hibernation.”

“You’re right, I’m going to try and get a few days off to help you two, but to do that I have to end the call and talk to my supervisors. Can you keep a hold on the situation for at most an hour?”

“Yeah, thank you for trying to help.”

“Of course I’ve got to go but expect me to come in with chaos control, bye”

“Bye...” Then the call ended. Which was fine, Tails could watch over Sonic for at least one hour. He’d been doing it for sixteen hours yesterday. 

So he brought a chair to Sonic’s room and sat down waiting. It took less than an hour for Shadow to arrive but to Tails it felt like forever. 

When Shadow did show up he used chaos control to get to the front door and after multiple doorbell rings over the course of a couple of minutes he used it again to get into the house. He walked around the house looking for Tails and eventually found him dazed staring emptily at Sonic. 

Trying not to spook the kid, Shadow walked into the room loudly, when that didn’t work he decided to just say the kids name. “Tails… Tails, Tails!” 

The last one shook Tails out of his mind and greeted him to the sight of a worried Shadow. Huh, that’s not something you see everyday. “Sorry I was thinking, probably a bit too hard.” 

Shadow nodded “So have you tried waking Sonic up since we last called?”

“I tried waking him up when I first found him and two times before we called, yelling doesn’t work, shaking him doesn’t work, and it felt mean to pour water on his face so I didn’t.”

“Was he injured when you brought him home?”

“No, but he had just gotten out of his super form.”

“He could be sleeping because he went super?”

“I know that! He just doesn’t sleep this long after going super, sixteen hours? Maybe, but not one full day.”

“He was working non-stop for two weeks before this, he probably needs to catch up on a bit of rest, he’ll be fine, Tails.”

“More than a bit of rest, I didn’t see him sleep once during the whole incident. He was always going no matter what. Though, I don’t think he got any chances to sleep because of his situation.”

“Situation? You mean the fact that he had to save the world.”

“No- Yes! Kinda? Something happened to him before the world split and it made him change into this big monster like version of himself, he called it the werehog. He hasn’t changed since he defeated Dark Gaia, well I haven’t seen him change but I did go to bed early so he very well could have?”

Shadow nodded “We’ll have to keep an eye on him tonight to make sure he’s stopped transforming. Do you know why he started changing in the first place?”

“Well we weren’t one hundred percent sure but we did think it had something to do with Dark Gaia, mainly some of the energy going into him. It explained why he transformed only at night and why he just now started changing”

“Then he could be asleep because his body has a lack of that energy it had gotten used to?”

“That could honestly be why! I probably should’ve thought about that before calling you, now you're here for no reason because Sonic is probably perfectly fine.” 

“Well clearly he isn’t perfectly fine because he’s slept for a full day. It’s okay that you called me. I’d also be concerned if I was in your situation.”

“Okay so he isn’t perfectly fine, but he’s not dead and you only wanted me to call you in emergencies.”

“You older brother being asleep and unable to care for you is an emergency. Therefore, I will take care of you and Sonic until he wakes up.”

“I can take care of myself, you don’t have to use your days off like this.”

“Sure you can take care of yourself, until you have to get groceries, cook a decent meal, or go to bed a decent time.”

“Hey! I can do… most of those.”

“And I can do all of them, relax, I’m okay with staying here. Sonic will wake up soon and then I’ll leave, but until then I’m not leaving you, an eight year old, alone to fend for himself.” 

“... Fine, but only until Sonic wakes up, which shouldn’t take too long.”

“Of course, it should only take a couple more hours.”

Turns out it did not take a couple more hours, it took another day and a half before Sonic even barely woke up. Tails or Shadow were always in the room watching over him and there were no changes, he barely even moved in his sleep. So when Sonic’s eyes started slowly fluttering open it was safe to say that Tails all but screamed for Shadow.

Shadow hearing Tails scream his name came into the room as fast as he could but calmed down when he actually saw Sonic, eyes open, awake. It took about a minute for him to start talking. “Hey buddy… is everyone okay? The world back together and all that?” 

Which led to Tails nodding and hugging Sonic. “Yes! You saved everyone, the world is whole again. But you slept for a whole two days.” 

“Huh.. really? I still feel super-” his sentence had been cut off by a yawn “tired…” and boy did he sure look tired, he was barely able to hug Tails back, and within a couple seconds of saying that he was back asleep.

Tails didn’t seem to notice though “Of course you still feel tired, sleeping for too long can make you more tired than sleeping too little!”

Shadow sighed “Tails, he already fell back asleep.”

“Oh-”

“Yeah, let’s just set him back in bed okay?”

Tails nodded and gently put Sonic back into the position he had started sleeping in. After a couple of seconds in silence Tails started sniffling. “I know he’s okay, I know it, but that still doesn’t make this any easier!” 

Slowly Shadow made his way up to Tails and set a hand on his shoulder. “I know it’s not easy looking at your loved one while they’re sick, or injured, or sleeping for multiple days because they worked too hard, but it will happen, especially when your brother happens to be Sonic the hedgehog. He’ll wake up and stay up soon, you just have to be a little bit patient, okay?”

Tails nodded and then wiped away the few tears that had formed. “I know he’s gonna get hurt, he has gotten hurt before even, but he’s never been like this. He’s always been there and smiled whenever things got bad, but now he can’t even keep his eyes open for ten minutes!”

“Tails, you’re a smart kid, but I’ve got to tell you something, you can’t rely on Sonic all the time, and you certainly can’t think he always has to smile. He’s typically the hero but he still needs breaks, he can still cry, and he can most certainly take a very long nap after saving the world for the fifth time this year. You need to be there for him when he wants a break, wants to feel normal.”

“... You’re right. I guess I have been putting a lot of pressure on him. I’m gonna make sure that he takes a decent break when he next wakes up!”

“That’s a good start, he’ll probably try and fix something the moment he can the next time he’s awake and fully coherent.”

“Yeah, but I won’t allow that! He already put the Earth back together; he doesn’t need to do anything else.”

“With a little bit of persuasion from you he probably won’t. You could probably have some sort of celebration once he wakes up. I mean when was the last time he was given a genuine thank you for his work?”

It took Tails a second to think about an answer, which was bad, he definitely should know when Sonic’s work was actually recognized. “The last actual thank you he got was when we helped Knuckles get the Master Emerald back from Eggman the first time he stole it.”

“Actually? That happened years ago though!” 

“Everyone just got used to Sonic saving them, some people still said thank you, but we haven’t had an actual celebration or party in years.”

“I thought you all had one after every big disaster, how else could Sonic’s ego be that big!”

“He only acts snarky and egotistical when he’s fighting or in dangerous situations, you should really try and get to know him outside of fights.”

“I know you, that’s close enough in my opinion.”

“Why do you know me in the first place? You seem to hate basically everyone else but Rouge and Omega.”

“You’re smart, I respect that. You also don’t annoy me, which is more than anyone else can say in your little group.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

It took another day for Sonic to wake up and the person watching him had been Shadow. When Sonic did wake up he was fully aware unlike the other time and actually sat up on his own. It took him a few seconds to look around the room and remember everything but when he did he had one question. Why was Shadow in his room watching over him? So of course he said it outloud. “Shadow? Why are you here?”

“Making sure your dumbass doesn’t die in the middle of the night, and taking care of Tails.” 

“Shoot! Tails, he said I was asleep for two days and then I just fell asleep again. He must be so confused and mad… How long was I out this time?”

“Just another day. It is currently five AM so Tails won’t be waking up for at least another three hours. He was also sad, not mad, but I was able to fix that.”

“He wasn’t confused?”

“Oh he was, I am too, what the hell did you do to get so tired that you had to sleep for three and a half days?”

“Well funny story actually, I didn’t sleep for two weeks due to the fact that I turned into a monster at night, I fought multiple spirit creatures until the sun rose everyday of those two weeks, ran across the world trying to find temples to revive the chaos emeralds, saved a kidnapped Professor Pickles, and so much more.”

“You didn’t sleep the entire time?”

“Yup.”

“Sonic, what the actual fuck?”

“What? The world was broken and these spirits were attacking people, I had to help!”

“You could’ve also taken a break?”

“During the day I was focusing on finding the temples, I was doing the same thing at night but way slower with the addition of freaky little monsters, there wasn’t any time for a break.”  
“You could’ve asked someone for help! You’re not the only hero.”

“The last time I asked you for help you looked like you wanted to punch me, Amy would just hug me the entire time, Knuckles has to guard the Master Emerald, and Tails was already flying me to different locations. So technically I did ask someone for help.”

“Sonic.... I’ve changed? I’m sorry if I let off the implication that I never wanted to help you but I definitely would have if you had just asked, I’m sure Knuckles would have too.”

“Well that’s great to know now, but it won’t change the past. Besides I’m alive and Dark Gaia was still defeated so everything’s fine!”

“But it’s not! You dealing with everything on your own and never getting any praise is not fine. Thinking that you have to do everything on your own is not fine. Even I have a team, Sonic.”

“Yeah, but you do government work and stuff! What I do is completely different and people can get hurt if they help.”

“Tails used to follow you all the time.”

“That was before I actually died, Shadow! Before I realized that other people could get genuinely hurt if I let them help. Sure things are fine and dandy with your team but the other people on it are an adult and a robot. Not an eight year old and someone who already has things to focus on. If Tails was with me when this all started he’d be dead from falling out of a space shuttle, I only survived because of weird Gaia magic and my new form. I work alone, it’s just something I have to do.”

“But you don’t have to!”

“But I do have to, otherwise my friends will die!”

“I’m immortal, you know that, you’ve known that for years! You don’t have to worry if you call me for help, so why didn’t you in the first place? Because it sure as hell isn’t just the fact that I looked a little grumpy.”

“Just because you’re immortal doesn’t mean you can’t get hurt and I care about you goddamnit!”

“I ALSO CARE AND YOU GOT HURT BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T ASK FOR HELP HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL, HOW DO YOU THINK TAILS FEELS? YOU DON’T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE SOLO HERO…” The two had ended up staring directly into each other's eyes, fists clenched, panting. Until Sonic started laughing. “What? Why are you doing that? Take this seriously!” Shadow lightly punched Sonic’s shoulder and kept doing so until he stopped laughing. 

“I’m sorry, it’s just- I’ve been a real idiot haven’t I?”

“You’re always an idiot, Faker.”

“Ooohoho going back to calling me names huh? That’s not very nice, especially when you said you cared about me.”

“The truth hurts, Blueberry.”

“So this is gonna be a thing you’ll do, call me every name but my actual name? Better than trying to kill me or yelling at me.”

“Go take a shower you stink, I’ll have some food ready when you come out.”

“Hope it’s actually edible.”

“Contrary to popular opinion I can cook, shower, now.”

“Okay okay yeesh.”

Sonic then took his shower and promised and actually felt really good afterwards. The warm water helped his sore muscles and removed all the dirt and grime one usually collects while fighting a huge monster. The smell of breakfast he got when he stepped out wasn’t half bad either. To his surprise the breakfast wasn’t bad too! At least Tails and Shadow’s wasn’t bad. His was just toast and rice. 

“Come on Shads can’t I at least have one egg?”

“You haven’t eaten in days, keep that down and you can have an egg.”

“But everything will be cold by the time I’m done.”

“I’ll make you a fresh egg if you shut up.”

And surprisingly Sonic actually shut up and ate his breakfast.

Tails snorted, then covered his mouth when he saw the glare Sonic gave him. “I’m sorry Sonic, it’s just, no one has ever gotten you to shut up that easily.” Sonic just kept glaring at Tails while eating his food. “And you rarely ever stay this quiet either, really I was expecting you to quip or something after I said that. You must really want that egg.” 

Sonic kept glaring until suddenly he smiled, took a bite of his piece of toast, and then pulled his hands into clear view to sign “Yes, I will have egg.”   
That had Shadow spitting out his orange juice. “You know sign language? That’s not fair, you can’t use that.”

“Technically he can Shadow, you told him to shut up, you never told him to not use sign language.”

“That was before I knew that he knew sign language, how long has this been a thing?”

“Well he knew it when we first met so at least 5 years, though it could be more”

While taking a bite of rice and not looking up Sonic put up the sign for seven. 

“Oh seven years!”

“I know sign language, Tails. You don’t have to translate.”

Sonic looked up, smiled, and signed “How long?”

“For as long as I can remember- wait- nope stop that, finish your food!”

And so the three of them fell into comfortable silence all eating their food. Sonic did eventually get his egg and he most definitely enjoyed it. They were all sitting on the couch about to watch Chao in Space 2, but then Tails asked a question. “So I know you save the world a lot, but this time it was harder and took more out of you, so I was thinking what if we had a celebration? You know, like old times. And typically you shouldn’t tell people about surprise parties I know, it’s just, I wanted to make sure you were okay with it before I told Amy that she could start planning it. So uhm are you okay with it?”

“Well gee Tails the last time we had a party you were four, I’m surprised you even remembered that we used to do that after defeating Eggman.”

“Yeah I know, it’s kinda the reason why I want to do one, and also the reason why I asked.”

Shadow shrugged “Don’t let me pressure you or anything, but I think you should do it. You deserve a break and- don’t ever tell someone else I said this, recognition.”

“I guess if Shadow even wants it I should do it. Sure Tails, let’s have a party!” Sonic smiled and rubbed the back of his head as well as someone with long quills could.


End file.
